billh wrote:That turned up nothing, so it sounds as if brcm80211 is not the way to go, right?

The earlier process did not install b43-fwcutter on my system. Is that an issue?

I have been using LMDE since about a month after it was released, that was when I installed broadcom-sta for my bcm4311. I have not ever installed b43-fwcutter. So, I would think that its absence is not an issue.

Give the brcm80211 a try. Otherwise I think you will have to download the newer version of broadcom-sta from their site and compile from source. Directions can be found in the readme file on the Broadcom site.

The one set of posts I have seen by someone else with the bcm4313 b/g/n ended up getting it working with the brcm80211. I think his posts are at the bottom of the first page of this thread.

I also noticed that the connection was set up in ad-hoc mode; I changed that to Infrastructure, after which it waited for quite a while before failing to connect.

Is it important that Menu > Administration > Network brings up a Network Settings dialog with 3 tabs (General, DNS, and Hosts)? I though there was a fourth tab at the front that let you set up Wired, Wireless, etc.

Yes, installing using the instructions on the Broadcom site will allow you to get a newer version of the driver, currently it is the 5.100.82.38. Apparently this is necessary for the newer version of the bcm4313 chipset that incorporates 802.11n.

I will edit the original tutorial to reflect the need for the newer driver version.

When you edit the tutorial, can you point to how to have the module loaded at boot time? I shut down (inadvertently; i tried to hibernate, but it appears it rebooted instead--maybe i have another problem), and now I had to reinstall the kernel module.

After reading a bit, it's not clear if the Broadcom README.txt instructions would apply to LMDE or not (load the driver, run `depmod -a`, and run `echo modprobe wl >> /etc/rc.local`, as that's followed immediately with a note about Fedora and SUSE. It's also not clear if a new initramfs might be required, but I found a Debian kernel handbook page (http://kernel-handbook.alioth.debian.or ... ramfs.html) that mentioned # dpkg-reconfigure linux-image-2.6.18-3-686, which I hadn't seen elsewhere.

Since a previous post of yours indicates that wl was an active module, it would be best to use the part of the readme.txt about upgrading.

Upgrading from a previous version:---------------------------------

If you were already running a previous version of wl, you'll want to providea clean transition from the older driver. (The path to previous driver isusually /lib/modules/<kernel-version>/kernel/net/wireless)

The readme instructions do not say, but you probably knew to do the above as root.

I noted in my install that the path I highlighted above in red is not correct. In my install the path is /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/net/wireless Unless you used a comparable path, I think this may be what needs changing.

Also, depmod is equivalent to depmod -a -a is a default option if no module name is provided. You probably do not need echo modprobe wl >> /etc/rc.local, I have that file but there is nothing in it except commented out lines and exit 0

I have a Dell inspiron 1520 laptop (BCM4312 wireless). With Mint main edition, I was able to use my b44 wired lan connection and install the b43 wireless. Both work. I have installed LMDE on a second partition. I tried for hours to get my wireless to work through this posting. Like others, I would lose the wired connection but I could never get the wireless to work. I reinstalled LMDE, then went to the software manager and typed in b43. I installed the firmware-b43-installer. Rebooted the computer. Now I am connected through the wireless and still have wired available if I want!

every time your update kernel headers you MAY have to do this again. I know I did. Last time I got wireless working I had a 5 meg connection :/ (my broadband is 50 meg!!)Now I am at full speed, without ANY connection losses whatsoever

good luck, this had been bothering me for ages. I reinstalled LMDE today after finding this post

Thanks all that contributed to this thread. I just rebuilt my Dell Studio 15 (1558) with LMDE and was having trouble with the wireless drivers. After downloading the latest x64 drivers from the Broadcom site I successfully used the following steps supplied by billh to solve it:

I am also having problems with the new kernel and my broadcom 4311. I have not been too pressed about finding a solution because I never upgraded the broadcom-sta version for the old kernel. I have just been using the old kernel.

I had thought to rebuild from the 5.60.48.36 version of broadcom-sta-source and broadcom-sta-common. However, I did not have the option. I had run apt-get autoclean, which removed the older versions since I had downloaded the 5.100.xx.xx version before installing the new kernel. In the next day or so, when I have access to wired broadband, I will try again, using these instructions, or a variation thereof:

these instructions are from the page upon which this How-To was based. When installing this older version with the new kernel, I will have to figure out how to keep the system from searching for the newer versions. If it does not work straight away, I will delete the new kernel, re-install it and then install the older drivers.

I do not know this for certain, but I have seen many posts on Ubuntu's forums regarding people with the BCM4311 on the 2.6.38 kernel. Most of them mentioned having to use the b43 driver instead of the STA (wl) driver. That seems odd to me, but perhaps worth giving a shot? That doesn't answer why the STA driver isn't working properly with the 4311 (works fine on my 4312) but it may offer a temporary solution until the fix is discovered.

Just wanted to throw that out in case it can help. My apologies if it does not as I don't have one to test that theory on.

I have tried the above methods, but to no avail. Any ideas on what I could do? Thanks.

Have you tried Administration > Windows Wireless Drivers ? (graphic version of ndiswrapper)

If you haven't, undo everything, uninstall linux and STA drivers.. then download that Broadcom card's WINDOWS (XP/7) drivers.Then get ndisgtk in software manager and point it to the drivers folder you just downloaded. There should be an .inf file, hopefully its not an .exe in which case use wine or virtual box to extract it first. Even when STA drivers worked for my Broadcom card, using ndisgtk vastly improved the signal strength.

FYI Broadcom has horrible support and I had to struggle for a few hours to fix my friends computer. I recommend buying another card if you can.

Thank you all! I just installed the b43 driver and it works like a charm. I'm pleased to see it's not as deaf as it was when I last used it. By the way, I did try following that tutorial, but it did nothing for me (Broadcom cards are always mysterious this way). And I will try someday using ndiswrapper if I feel like tinkering.

I used method 3 after uninstalling the existing driver for the broadcom card installed by default (my Broadcom 4312 wireless card is low power and requires firmware-b43-lpphy-installer_4.174.64.19-4_all.deb instead of the default firmware-b43-installer... I marked that file for removal and applied the change using Synaptic Package Manager.

This works for Ubuntu, Linux Mint XFCE and LMDE ...

To install the premade driver from Broadcom follow the instructions given by Broadcom for installation of the Broadcom-STA driver:

When the build completes, it will produce a wl.ko file in the top leveldirectory.

If your driver does not build, check to make sure you have installed thekernel package described in the requirements above.

INSTALL INSTRUCTIONS--------------------

Upgrading from a previous version:---------------------------------

If you were already running a previous version of wl, you'll want to providea clean transition from the older driver. (The path to previous driver isusually /lib/modules/<kernel-version>/kernel/net/wireless)

The new wl driver should now be operational and your all done. (follow the steps below to "install' the driver)

Fresh installation:------------------1: Remove any other drivers for the Broadcom wireless device.

There are several open source drivers that are used to drive Broadcom 802.11chips such as b43 and ssb. They will conflict with this driver and needto be uninstalled before this driver can be installed. Any previous revisions of the wl driver also need to be removed.

Note: On some systems such as Ubuntu 9.10, the ssb module may load duringboot even though it is blacklisted (see note under Common Issues on how toresolve this). Nevertheless, ssb still must be removed(by hand or script) before wl is loaded. The wl driver will not function properly if ssb the module is loaded.

# lsmod | grep "b43\|ssb\|wl"

If any of these are installed, remove them:# rmmod b43# rmmod ssb# rmmod wl

To blacklist these drivers and prevent them from loading in the future:# echo "blacklist ssb" >> /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf# echo "blacklist b43" >> /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf

2: Insmod the driver.

Otherwise, if you have not previously installed a wl driver, you'll needto add a security module before using the wl module. Most newer systems use lib80211 while others use ieee80211_crypt_tkip. See which one works for your system.

# modprobe lib80211 (this one worked for me) or # modprobe ieee80211_crypt_tkip

Then:# insmod wl.ko

wl.ko is now operational. It may take several seconds for the Network Manager to notice a new network driver has been installed and show thesurrounding wireless networks.

Common issues:----------------

* After the insmod you may see this message: "WARNING: modpost: missing MODULE_LICENSE()" It is expected, not harmful and can be ignored.

* You might see this message: "insmod: error inserting 'wl.ko': -1 Unknown symbol in module" Usually this means that the wlan security module (as mentioned above) is not loaded. Try this: # modprobe lib80211 or # modprobe ieee80211_crypt_tkip and then re-try to insmod the wl driver. # insmod wl.ko

* If the wl driver loads but doesn't seem to do anything: the ssb module may be the cause. Sometimes blacklisting ssb may not be enough to prevent it from loading and it loads anyway. (This is mostly seen on Ubuntu/Debian systems).

Check to see if ssb, wl or b43 is loaded: # lsmod | grep "b43\|ssb\|wl"